Confused dot com

[Anne the artist]

Hello, I'm Anne from Leicestershire. I'm 80 in November and have just been diagnosed as Diabetes 2. I'm taking Metformin, which fortunately has had no side effects. My sugar has gone from 9.9 to 7.2 so far. I get confused with the amounts of sugar I am restricted to per day as there seem to be natural and added sugars. A lot of recipes have up to 20 sugars even in your recipes. Can you enlighten me,please. I seem to be always hungry. I know I'm getting on a bit and have dotty moments, but I like to do the job correctly.
Thanks.

 

[Leadinglights]

Welcome to the forum
The 'sugar' is not really relevant as it is the TOTAL carbohydrate you need to look at as it is all carbohydrates that convert to glucose. The product information will usually give it in grams per 100g and may also say the sugar in grams but you can really ignore that.
The recipes on the site are not specifically aimed at just Type 2 and therefore may seem high carb because people who take insulin can eat a normal diet if they choose.
Many people who follow a low carb approach have less than 130g total carb per day but some do have less than that to manage their blood glucose levels.
If you are feeling hungry then you may need to increase protein and healthy fats not have more carbs.
You may find the book Carbs and Cals helpful to compare foods and make better choices. There are apps free or otherwise that people use.
I did look at the recipes on the site and some did seem quite high carb but with some substitutions you could adapt them but there were also some lower carb ones. Alternatively you could just have half a portion and bulk out with veg or salad.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Welcome back @Anne the artist - lovely to see you again 🙂

Like @Leadinglights I have always found ‘sugar’ to be a bit of a red herring. Sugar is just a different form of carbohydrate, and all carbohydrate will be broken down into glucose. Sugar isn’t even necessarily a cast iron indicator of how rapidly your blood glucose will rise. Cornflakes have a higher GI (an approximate value predicting the average speed/rise in glucose values from different foods) than Frosties, despite having sugar added, and Cornflakes are also faster absorbed on average than table sugar itself!

So while it certainly is sensible to avoid obviously sweet and sugary things, it is also very important to keep an eye on all parts of the diet which are high in total carbohydrate but have little or no sugar.

Unfortunately ‘no sugar’ or ‘no added sugar’ on a label doesn’t necessarily mean that something will be gentle on the BG levels